An anonymous bad quarto is published in 1597, but dating this play
centers usually on the astrological references mentioned as having
occurred eleven years earlier. Earthquakes occurred in 1584, 1580 (a
big one that Arthur Golding, Oxford's uncle, wrote about as being God's
wrath upon an evil age), and in 1570 (in Italy). Two later anonymous
quarto versions (1609 and 1622) also emerged. "One is almost forced
to conclude that Shakespeare told Burby to stop using his name, either
because of some outside pressure or because of the special nature of
this particular work" (Farina 173). Indeed, circumstances for de Vere
in 1581 match the main concerns and elements in the play, including
the duels with the Knyvet faction (e.g., Farina 177) and even the
order of deaths on the two sides of the dispute (Anderson 180-181).
Anne Cecil was betrothed at 14 and married when she turned 15, and
Juliet in previous versions had been older (Farina 176; cf. Anderson
51). The banishment of being "forsaken by Elizabeth" (fair Rosaline),
the Vavasour matter, and an "intimate riposte to the Queen" may suggest
a 1581-83 original date, with a 1591 revision (Ogburn and Ogburn 385).
Juliet is partially Anne Cecil, partially Anne Vavasour (Ogburn and
Ogburn 386, 399).

Luigi DaPorto's story of Romeo and Giulietta in 1530 uses the names
Montecchi and Cappelletti, taken from Dante's Purgatorio
(Farina 175). In 1554, Bandello published a version of the story.
The main direct source is a piece called
The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliett,
published in 1562 and, because of "Ar. Br." on the title page,
attributed to Arthur Brooke. See Nina Green, "Who Was Arthur Brooke:
Author of The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliett?"
The Oxfordian 3 (2000): 59-70. Some Oxfordians argue that
the real author was a very young de Vere who then revised his own
juvenilia which became the later famous play.

PROLOGUE

The first word, "Two," works thematically through the play, referring
intrinsically both to contentious warring factions and to unity in a
pair. In sonnet form, a chorus or character serving as Chorus announces
the family feud "Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean" (4): and
note how "civil," meaning citizens', also has a secondary meaning of
civilized or polite, which creates the snazzy oxymoron here. Chorus
reports the coming tragedy that a "pair of star-cross'd lovers take
their life" (6): and note here the ungrammatical unity in duality with
the singular "life." "'Star-cross'd' backed by 'fatal' has pretty much
surrendered this drama to the astrologers," but "nowhere else does
Shakespeare show any tendency to believe in fate in this sense"
(Goddard, I 117); so beware Chorus' easy packaging of the tale.
Chorus pretty much gives away the whole "two hours' traffic of our
stage" (12), if the reductive plot summary is of any value.

The sonnet prologues that introduce and frame act 1 and act 2 will
have disappeared by the beginning of act 3. 'Reality' in the form of
death and loss overtakes literary artifice, and the play is forced,
early on, to acknowledge its own tragic shape, which stylized language
cannot contain.... Throughout Romeo and Juliet artificiality in
language will be a sign of lack of self-knowledge, a failure to
acknowledge what is wrong in Verona. (Garber 190)

ACT I

SCENE i

The theme of twos is further established: on the streets of Verona,
two servants of Juliet Capulet's family, "given the most un-Italian
names of Sampson and Gregory" and "indistinguishable from English
servingmen" (Asimov 476), exercise their wits, punning on the subjects
of cowardice and phallic weapons. The phrase "the weakest goeth to
the wall" (I.i.13-14) is the title of a play printed a year after
the second quarto by the same printer, Creede (Farina 174), and
attributed by some to the Earl of Oxford. Goaded perhaps by Gregory's
joking accusations of his lack of valor, Sampson jibes about taking
Montague women rather violently. Obviously, considering their low rank,
the family feud is longstanding. "Draw thy tool, here comes two of the
house of Montague," says Gregory (I.i.31-32). Sampson responds, "My
naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee" (I.i.33-34). But it
is Sampson who goads the two Montague servants by making "the rude
gesture sometimes known as the 'fig of Spain,' or as 'giving the fig'"
(Garber 190). These Capulet servants are pretty cheesy. When Abram the
Montague servant asks twice, "Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" (I.i.44,
46), Sampson asks Gregory, "Is the law on our side if I say ay?" (I.i.47-48).
Gregory speeds the build-up to the fight when it is advantageous to do
so: "Say 'better,' here comes one of my master's kinsmen" (I.i.58-59).
Benvolio (a Montague nephew) tries to stop the fight. His name means
"good will" and indeed he seems to manifest it, but Tybalt -- a Capulet
nephew and "as dour a son of pugnacity as Mercutio is a dashing one"
(Goddard, I 125), "a sort of Mediterranean Hotspur" (Goddard,
I 126) -- challenges and fights him: "What, drawn and talk of
peace? I hate the word / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
/ Have at thee, coward!" (I.i.70-72). "Shakespeare does not give the
nature of the feud between the Veronese households, and there is no
indication that it is political in nature" (Asimov 476). Other citizens
involve themselves in the brawl. The heads of the Montague and Capulet
households and their wives enter, the men intending to join the fight.

Finally Escalus, Prince of Verona, who is fed up with these people he
calls "beasts" (I.i.83), stops the fighting with threats of execution.
"His name ... is surely intended to call to mind the Greek playwright
Aeschylus, the author of the Oresteia, the story of the fall of
the House of Atreus, a warring family's rise and catastrophic fall"
(Garber 191). "Elizabeth, as sovereign. is portrayed by the Prince,
who was incensed by the lengths to which the Montague-Capulet feud
was carried, as the Queen was by the Oxford-Knyvet feud" (Ogburn
and Ogburn 386).

Benvolio, a character unnamed in the "Brooke" poem and whose name
here means "good will" (Asimov 477) and the Montague couple fret about
Romeo's anti-social mood, his weeping and sighing, and his reclusiveness:
he "Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, / And makes himself
an artificial night" (I.i.139-140). He refers to affections "That most
are busied when they're most alone" (I.i.129), echoing one of Oxford's
own early verses: "That never am less idle, lo, than when I am alone"
(qtd. in Ogburn and Ogburn 389). And how does Shakespeare know that
there was indeed a "grove of sycamore / That westward rooteth from this
city side" (I.i.121-122) without having been there? Benvolio sees Romeo
coming and vows to find out the cause of his behavior.

Romeo doesn't know the time of day and confesses to being in love.
Romeo indulges in the traditional overwrought Petrarchan self-absorption
of love's oxymorons (e.g., I.i.176, 180) and the insistence, "I have lost
myself" (I.i.197); but it's the pose, not the real deal. Lots of "O"
declarations appear (Ogburn and Ogburn 395). Romeo is a "deliberate
onstage caricature of the sonnet-writing, lovesick, moon-struck lover who
places his lady on a pedestal, and is really in love either with the idea
of love or, even more accurately, with the idea of himself as a lover"
(Garber 192). And the lady, like Dian (I.i.209), is sworn to chastity;
"Romeo's moan is that the girl he loves insists on chastity" (Asimov 479).
Shake-speare's Sonnets are echoed: "O, she is rich in beauty, only poor /
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store./ ... / For beauty starv'd
with her severity / Cuts beauty off from all posterity" (I.i.215-220).
The Petrarchan mode is dominant now, or even Euphuism (Ogburn and Ogburn
1070; Anderson 161), but "When Romeo falls in love with Juliet, his
language changes, and becomes sharply inventive, witty, and original"
(Garber 192). Benvolio thinks Romeo should shop around, but Romeo has
eyes only for one woman (and he hasn't met Juliet yet). "We never
learn much about Rosaline. She is glimpsed, once, at the Capulet
ball, but she is not a dramatic character in the play" (Garber 192).

Many Oxfordians point to the autobiographical dimension of the
street-fights and de Vere's duel with Sir Thomas Knyvet in March
1581-82 which precipitated a series of brawls and ambushes through
the year in which some servants of the two houses (Vere and Howard)
were indeed killed. Oxford received a severe leg-wound, like Cassio
in Othello. The feud originated with Oxford's affair with Anne
Vavasour, the young dark lady.

SCENE ii

A young nobleman, Paris, is asking Capulet for his daughter's hand in
marriage. At thirteen (I.ii.9), she's a bit young! "Shakespeare does
not bother giving the ages of any of the heroines of his other early
plays; only in this one does he make an exception, and for no obvious
reason, he emphasizes it strenuously" (Asimov 480). Capulet suggests he
wait two years. "Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she; / She's the
hopeful lady of my earth" (I.ii.14-15). But if she consents when Paris
woos, what can one do? Paris is invited to attend the feast tonight at
Capulet's house, and a servant -- a clown figure -- is sent to deliver
invitations to more guests. The servant is illiterate and, on the street,
asks Romeo to read the list. Since "fair Rosaline" is on the list,
Benvolio urges Romeo to attend to see her in the context of other
ladies: "Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by" (I.ii.94): a
notion on which Portia expounds in the last act of The Merchant
of Venice. The two will attend, Romeo hoping to see Rosaline
and Benvolio hoping he'll see someone else.

The reference in this scene to a hypothetical "broken shin" (I.ii.52)
brings to mind the consequences to de Vere, who received a leg wound
in his duel with Knyvet.

SCENE iii

Lady Capulet calls for her daughter Juliet and brings up the topic
of her age: she'll turn fourteen on August 1st (I.iii.16-17). Lady
Capulet seems to be about 28 (Asimov 482). The bawdy and chatty Nurse
recalls Juliet's childhood (like, uh, last week?): "'Tis since the
earthquake now aleven years, / And she was wean'd" (I.iii.23-24).
She repeats a story about the toddler Juliet falling down and her
late husband saying, "Yea ... dost thou fall upon thy face? / Thou
wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit, / Wilt thou not, Jule?"
Juliet, not understanding the sexual innuendo, had said, "Ay"
(I.iii.41-44; cf. 55-57). This the Nurse finds hilarious. "In the
opening scenes of the play the Nurse's earthiness and practicality,
as well as her frankness in sexual matters, offer a welcome antidote
to the artifice, false idealism, and even prissiness embodied in Lady
Capulet's advocacy of Paris.... The audience is more likely to be
pleased by the volubility and sexual frankness of this forthright
descendant of the Wife of Bath" (Garber 196).

Juliet's Nurse, despite her popularity, is altogether a much darker
figure. Like Mercutio, she is inwardly cold, even toward Juliet,
whom she has raised. Her language captivates us, as does Mercutio's,
but Shakespeare gives both of them hidden natures much at variance
with their exuberant personalities. ... Juliet, like her late twin
sister, Susan, is too good for the Nurse, and there is an edge to the
account of the weaning that is bothersome, since we do not hear the
accents of love.
(Bloom 97-98)

Missoula teacher Sylvia Morey corrects Bloom's error here.

Susan is NOT Juliet's twin, but the daughter of the Nurse. As was
the custom of the time, Lady Capulet hired the Nurse (Angelica/Angel)
when they (both the Nurse and Lady Capulet) were pregnant. The Nurse
was probably 3-4 months further along in her pregnancy than Lady Capulet,
so when the Nurse gave birth to Susan, she would have 2-3-4 months time
to establish her milk supply. And then when Lady Capulet gave birth to
Juliet, Juliet was given to the Nurse to breastfeed. That is what is
meant by the term "wet-nurse." Because of the high infant mortality
rate, Susan died at some point. The Nurse comments, "Well, Susan is
with God; she was too good for me" (I.iii.24-25) which relates to the
religious view that people (babes included) were better off in Heaven.
Think of Friar Laurence's consoling speech (IV.v.74-93) to Lord and
Lady Capulet -- that good parents only want what is best for their
child, and therefore they should be happy that Juliet was in Heaven.
Also note the Nurse's remark about Juliet: "thou hadst sucked wisdom
from thy teat" (I.iii.75). By having a "wetnurse" for Juliet, Lady
Capulet could leave Juliet. For example, when the Nurse is recalling
how old Juliet is to the day, she remarks that Lady Capulet was in
Mantua. The Nurse also recalls the weaning process in which she "laid
wormwood to my dug.... When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, To see it tetchy and fall
out with the dug!" (I.iii.31-37).

Thomas Cecil, Oxford's brother-in-law, had a daughter Susan who died
in 1575 (Ogburn and Ogburn 403). The reference to the earthquake
(I.iii.23) has been aligned with a very minor one in England in 1580
(so that some editors date the play from 1591), but Verona experienced
an earthquake of some severity in 1570, one that destroyed Ferrara.

When the Earl of Oxford wintered in Italy in 1575, some five years after
the great catastrophe, evidence of the widespread ravages would have
still remained. Small homes might have been rebuilt within five years,
but not the castles, palaces, churches and great public buildings. The
earthquake in England in 1580 as bad as it may have seemed to Englishmen,
did relatively little damage, but it would have refreshed Oxford's mind
as to the devastation wrought by the great earthquake in Italy in 1570.
(Clark 476; cf. Ogburn and Ogburn 403)

Lady Capulet broaches the subject of marriage, claiming that "By my
count, / I was your mother much upon these years / That you are now
a maid" (I.iii.71-73) -- seeming to mean that she was already a mother
when she was Juliet's age, but really speaking a tautology: that she's
been Juliet's mother for as long as Juliet has been alive. Oops. The
Nurse is enthusiastic at the prospect for Juliet, and Lady Capulet
describes Paris' face as a book: "find delight writ there with beauty's
pen; / ... / And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies / Find written
in the margent of his eyes" (I.iii.82-86). A secondary meaning from
a revised layer of the play may refer here to the Fair Youth (Ogburn
and Ogburn 407, 815). A docile Juliet announces her obeisance as a
servant announces that the guests are starting to arrive.

SCENE iv

Romeo, Benvolio, and Romeo's friend Mercutio -- "the most notorious
scene-stealer in all of Shakespeare" (Bloom 93), "representing for
this play the spirit of creative imagination and improvisation" (Garber
203) -- head towards the Capulet home to crash the party and dance.
"Romeo was the poet-lover-courtier aspect of Oxford, whereas Mercutio
is the mercurial side, the dashing wit, to whom every word is a jest
and every jest but a word, while Benvolio represents the good will he
felt and wished to practice" (Ogburn and Ogburn 387). Mercutio "is the
lightsome and the euphuistic side of Oxford (Ogburn and Ogburn 396).
"The 'visor for a visor' [I.iv.29f] points up the secret authorship:
the mask for one who is already masked, that is to say" (Ogburn and
Ogburn 396). Perhaps there is something of an anagram in the name:
"Me-turc-io, or Me, the Turk, E.O." (Ogburn and Ogburn 398).

Romeo is in a funk about Rosaline. Love "pricks like thorn" (I.iv.26);
"This was a barbed thrust, for it informed Elizabeth -- as Oxford
was to inform her again in the Sonnets -- that her motto, Rosa
sine spina (A Rose without a thorn) was not applicable to the
particular Tudor Rose which was herself" (Ogburn and Ogburn 407).
The animated but cynical Mercutio mocks Romeo's supposed love-agony.
Romeo says at one point, "For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase,
/ I'll be a candle-holder and look on" (I.iv.37-38). The Earl of
Oxford's grandmother's name was Elizabeth Trussell; "'Trussell' is
an old way of spelling 'trestle,' and an old meaning of the word
'trestle' is a stand or frame for candles or tapers burning in
religious worship. It can, therefore, be literally said that through
his grandmother, the Earl was a candle-holder" (Holland, qtd. in Clark
473; cf. Ogburn and Ogburn 396). Mercutio's puns on "dun" (I.iv.40f)
refer obscurely to Elizabeth Trussell's grandfather Sir John Dun
(Ogburn and Ogburn 397).

Romeo brings up the subject of dreams, whereat Mercutio gives his
famous, if odd, Queen Mab speech about a diminutive fairy who influences
dreams. "Mercutio's Mab is the midwife of our erotic dreams, aiding us
to give birth to our deep fantasies.... Mercutio is setting us up for
the revelation of Mab as the nightmare, the incubus who impregnates
maids. Romeo interrupts to say: 'Thou talkst of nothing,' where
'nothing' is another slang term for the vagina" (Bloom 95).

Romeo senses trouble:

my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall fearfully begin his fateful date
With this night's revels, and expire the term
Of a despised life clos'd in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
(I.iv.106-111)

SCENE v

Inside the Capulet house, the servants grapple with their chores among
so many people. Capulet welcomes everyone, especially ladies who have
no corns on their feet for they can dance, and he tries to recall how
long it's been since he was at a masked ball. "Capulet is certainly a
mild caricature of Burghley as genial host. Lord Burghley was
inveterately hospitable to the great and kept a full record of those
who dined with him" (Ogburn and Ogburn 399).

Romeo sees Juliet and it's love at first sight: "Did my heart love
till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this
night" (I.v.52-53). Romeo "leaves fair Rosaline (the Tudor Rose)
for Juliet-Anne" Vavasour (Ogburn and Ogburn 204). Tybalt knows Romeo's
voice and tries to attack him but old Capulet calms matters; he tries
to maintain peace and party atmosphere, and he has heard only good
things about Romeo. Tybalt withdraws, seething. Since the name evokes
Tibert the cat in the story of Reynard the Fox, "the very use of the name
at once brings up the picture of this particular Capulet as a quarrelsome
and vicious tomcat" (Asimov 478). "Tybalt is a kind of character we will
encounter frequently in Shakespeare's plays in one guise or another, an
old-style hero from a world that is almost mythic, primitive, or tribal,
a spirit of heroic warfare and revenge ... on the one hand, heroic, but
on the other, unable to function in a modern world of politics and
compromise, the world of The Prince, the world of law and
language" (Garber 202).

Romeo and Juliet speak a while, Romeo using many religious terms and
kissing her: "My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand / To smooth
that rough touch with a tender kiss" (I.v.95-96). They speak in a
shared sonnet form at this first meeting (I.v.92ff), "a sonnet that
is witty as well as lyrical, that uses religious imagery but somewhat
subverts it by its admission of physicality" (Wells 80). "The sonnet
tradition of unattainable or unrequited love is turned inside out,
and the artifice of conventional language goes with it. This is love
at first sonnet" (Garber 194). The phrase "Patience perforce" (I.v.92)
comes from another one of Oxford's early poems: "Patience perforce is
such a pinching pain" (qtd. in Ogburn and Ogburn 389).

The Nurse eventually interrupts, trying to scoot Juliet off to her
mother, and she tells Romeo that Juliet is a Capulet. As the party
is breaking up, Juliet has the Nurse find out Romeo's name: "Immediately
this guileless girl of almost fourteen becomes a clever strategist,
decoying the Nurse with false preliminary inquiries so that she can
attain her true object, to know Romeo's name" (Garber 205). Juliet
discovers, to her dismay, he's a Montague:

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me
That I must love a loathed enemy.
(I.v.138-141)

Deep tragic irony, or high drama from an adolescent with a cliché
romantic imagination about a supposedly dangerous boy that the totally
unfair family will object to?